I can't turn on sports talk these days without hearing NFL discussions about whether the Colts or the Saints should play their last few games with all their starters (and make their best effort to finish the regular season undefeated), or if it is acceptable for them to rest their star players who are fatigued or who have nagging injuries.
That led me to think of the possible implications of a college playoff system, and whether this type of scenario could ever trickle down into the ranks of the NCAA. I'm pretty certain this does go on at the Division II level (a team like UNA who clinches a playoff spot sometimes loses a meaningless regular season closer with no real damage done.) I don't think that Bama would ever rest anyone needlessly against Auburn, but what if an 8 or 16 team playoff system were implemented that basically guaranteed the SEC West and East Division champs would be included? In our case this year, we could have rested some players against MSU and UTC. How would you feel about this, if say, Bama still made the playoffs but yet dropped a game to someone like ULM late in the year while resting our best players?
With all the talk of Bye weeks today, it is a valid point. I think we all liked it when we had a bye week at the end of the season prior to playing the SECCG. We'll have more than a month of rest before playing in the BCSCG. But, if we were entering a 16 team playoff after the SECCG, that would have meant 3 additional rounds during December, leading up to a championship game in January. Giving the starters a rest going down the closing stretch (after clinching a spot) might make a big difference in post season play.
I've previously considered myself to be a proponent of a big (16+ team) playoff in Div 1. After thinking about this today, though, I think it would be best just to have something like a Final 4, or possibly a Top 3 with a play-in game for teams 4 & 5. That would still settle the issue on the field with the Top 5 teams, but yet not take away so much meaning from the regular season that a team could afford to lose some throw-away games late in the year.
That led me to think of the possible implications of a college playoff system, and whether this type of scenario could ever trickle down into the ranks of the NCAA. I'm pretty certain this does go on at the Division II level (a team like UNA who clinches a playoff spot sometimes loses a meaningless regular season closer with no real damage done.) I don't think that Bama would ever rest anyone needlessly against Auburn, but what if an 8 or 16 team playoff system were implemented that basically guaranteed the SEC West and East Division champs would be included? In our case this year, we could have rested some players against MSU and UTC. How would you feel about this, if say, Bama still made the playoffs but yet dropped a game to someone like ULM late in the year while resting our best players?
With all the talk of Bye weeks today, it is a valid point. I think we all liked it when we had a bye week at the end of the season prior to playing the SECCG. We'll have more than a month of rest before playing in the BCSCG. But, if we were entering a 16 team playoff after the SECCG, that would have meant 3 additional rounds during December, leading up to a championship game in January. Giving the starters a rest going down the closing stretch (after clinching a spot) might make a big difference in post season play.
I've previously considered myself to be a proponent of a big (16+ team) playoff in Div 1. After thinking about this today, though, I think it would be best just to have something like a Final 4, or possibly a Top 3 with a play-in game for teams 4 & 5. That would still settle the issue on the field with the Top 5 teams, but yet not take away so much meaning from the regular season that a team could afford to lose some throw-away games late in the year.
